Beta Test - Job
'The Little Princess' 1623, Paulus moreelse
Job, not job
Today's Church in America has a lot of self-proclaimed princesses,
both female and male.
Concerning Jesus-princesses, there is a huge superstitious myth floating through the church that Christians should all live special lives, free from the difficulties that the eternally damned must face in this life.
Have I got a few scriptures for you.
Your first assignment is to read the book of Job.
Seriously, the entire book, then come back here and read.
Job had wealth, fame and power.
Job 1 said that Job was "...the greatest man among all the people of the East."
I suppose his daughters might have thought themselves princesses.
Yet they were all brutally killed with God's permission.
Why?
Because the devil hates God, and the devil tries to prove that everyone else hates God too.
The devil acts a lot like a petulant middle-grader.
And God, for some reason, acts like a Being with absolute sovereignty,
with ownership of everything on earth,
and control of everyone's fate,
acting like everything and everyone are things at His utter disposal
to use as He pleases, for His purposes.
In the Old Testament, God used Job and Job's family to prove a point.
Job went through a period of Beta-testing.
Beta-testing is when a product is tested to check its quality.
Every God-follower goes through beta-testing,
even New Testament believers.
Luke 22:
31 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.
32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.
And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
See? As long the devil challenges the devotion of God's followers,
God will allow the beta-testing.
So, we need to drop this princess-stuff and get down to business.
James, the Apostle warned us to expect beta-testing and gave this advice in James 1:
2 "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete,
not lacking anything.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God,
who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you."